Grand Canyon:ON Review Overview
Canyon has revamped its lineup and made the Grand Canyon:ON, a bike that is well specced and will appeal to a lot of different users. This e-bike is not for shredding — it’s for fun riding.
The bike is surprisingly built around the Bosch Generation 4 Performance CX motor and handlebar-mounted smart system battery and remote. The designers have made a very good-looking electric bike with a near-perfect downtube, which does not look bulky.
The frame is aluminum and it’s well-proportioned. It contains a 750Wh Bosch battery. The geometry is comfortable and designed for a multitude of uses. The frame is completely open to being accessorized with fenders, racks, and a kickstand. These aren’t accessories that you typically find for mountain bikes, but being that this electric bike is made for casual riding, we think you’ll find them handy.
The wheel size format for this bike is 29” front and rear. Our test version came with Bosch’s latest ABS braking system, which is an important safety feature. ABS brakes keep your wheels from locking up and you from skidding out on gravel surfaces. If you’ve ever had your tires move out from under you, you know how amazing this feature is.
This e-bike is designed for a broad range of riders who want to take their bike with them everywhere and ride in lots of places from the boardwalk to the hills. The Grand Canyon will let anyone enjoy discovering the world by e-bike.
Best For
White gravel-extra urban roads, getting around town, putting on the back of the camper van so you have transport when you get there. Mild exploratory trail rides will introduce you to the world of fitness and family rides.
Reasons to Buy the Grand Canyon:ON
Getting into biking? This might be the bike for you. It’s got enough features to make it worthwhile for the long haul and capable enough to begin to try the off-road experience. Considering it has the best Bosch kit on it, other bikes at this price range won’t look so attractive.
Things to Consider
Ride to the shops? Check! Ride in the rain and stay dry with the fender kit? Check! Go 50 miles on one charge? Check! Look smart and stylish? Check! Excellent price? Check! Extreme riding? Avoid. Last a long time? Check!
Grand Canyon:ON Components
The frame is refreshing for an entry-level e-bike with excellent design cues on the downtube. In our experience, aluminum tubes tend to be bulky, but not the Grand Canyon, it looks slim considering it has a huge 750Wh battery inside it. The battery can’t be easily swapped out and must be charged in the bike, but with this type of e-bike, we expect exceptional range.
Suspension is all about comfort on this type of bike hence a 120mm Fox 34 AWL fork, it’s not about eating rocks, it’s about control on mild bumps. This e-bike is at home on smooth trails or gravel roads. You can get a little wild but not to the point of extreme enduro. It has a few basic settings including compression and rebound. Enough to make the tune responsive to the rider’s personal needs.
Shimano XT shifting is faultless, smooth, and quiet. At this price point, the shifting makes a difference to the end user who will see the XT level spec and make purchasing decisions based on it.
Braking is where this test bike shines, our test version had the Bosch ABS brake system on it. This was shockingly functional and makes a difference when it comes to stability on loose surfaces, especially in the hands of inexperienced or less skillful riders. You can set it to different levels of help to find that which suits your needs. The rear wheel won’t lift either and the system will vary front braking to avoid lock as well thus decelerating in a controlled way.
The Rodi wheels are functional and we felt fairly robust, we would expect them to last and not be noticed. At 29” they add to the overall ride stability of this bike. The Nobby Nic tires are fast rolling and have enough bite for most trail conditions we would expect to be riding this bike on.
Bosch Motor and Battery
Bosch’s smart system allows the user to now fully tune all power modes even on lower-end models. With the Grand Canyon:ON we left them all alone as we didn’t need a zapped max-acceleration e-bike. The app is easy to use and for this type of e-bike, we recommend getting a handlebar mount for your phone so that you can use the integrated map data when riding. If you opt for the Bosch version you can even charge your phone while riding.
The battery is 750 Wh on all models apart from the entry-level version which will be the 625 Wh version. The 750 Wh is great for heavier riders or those who want ultimate range, the battery must be charged in the frame.
The remote is Bosch’s smart remote which is more urban in its styling and has a clear color combination for the different types of power assist modes.
The Bosch motor is the powerhouse of the traditional motors out there. It is marginally more “assistive” in its feel compared to a Shimano motor, which is marginally more natural. The fact that Canyon has managed to spec at this level its high-end motor is great for the consumer. Sometimes other brands use the active line which has less torque, so it’s good to see the Performance Line CX across all models in the range.
Geometry
This bike has a good geometry for an upright feel and steady easy descending. It’s not designed for extreme riding, but the cockpit is aggressive enough that if you do want to ride off-road a bit you can and won’t be bouncing around ready to launch over the bars, it’s good enough to allow some mild dynamic riding.
On The Trail
This e-bike should not be just confined to the trails, with the variations in extras possible, this bike is the most versatile in the range in our opinion. Add a rack and this can be an all-day off-road tour bike. Put the kickstand on it and suddenly you can park it anywhere, which is great for cruising the boardwalk and just parking up somewhere convenient. You can then use the digital lock plus another lock to deactivate the motor and make it completely inconvenient to steal.
This electric bike is fast enough that you can use it around the city on rough streets and it also has enough range that you could use it to go 10 miles to work and charge it once a week.
Feel like a weekend exploratory ride? Go for it! It’s comfortable enough that you can explore the area as much as you want without worrying about running out of battery. It can do at least 50 miles in eco mode on flat trails or roads.
Off-road on proper trails, we would say this is a sturdy contender for finding out where the trail goes, slowly. Don’t expect to rail turns and float through rock gardens, but expect to be able to make it further than you would expect. Great for exploring a mountain pass and dropping back down the access road.
Grand Canyon:ON Review Takeaways
We spent a week testing some of the best extreme riding e-bikes on the market. However the Grand Canyon:ON was the e-bike that we actually felt was the bike that could make the biggest difference to the wider market and provide accessible quality riding to all without breaking the bank.
This portion of the market is hyper-competitively priced and consumers are very price sensitive. Canyon, therefore, with its direct sales model, also has to compete against other direct sales, so its customer service and quality branded components make this bike stand out as the go-to starting point.
Who can argue about having one of the best motor systems on the market at this price range? We think it will be a difficult product to compete against, go and try one if you can at a local test event!
